At The Movies: "Payback"

By Ted Anthony

Porter (Mel Gibson) robs from lowlifes, steals change from
panhandlers and kidnaps teen-agers. He pinches badges from cops
and puts them in the hands of guys he kills. And, it seems, he
has no first name. A thoroughly unsavory character.

But here's the rub: While Porter's a bad, bad man, everything
around him is worse.

That's the premise of ``Payback,'' a pleasantly surprising
piece of movie fun that follows Porter around an anachronistic
Chicago (is it 1999? 1975? 1948? Hard to tell) as he fights to
reclaim $70,000 that was stolen from him by a fellow thug who
left him for dead.

Payback works on just about every level. It has quirky characters
galore, all with sundry facial tics and eyes that dart about.
It has a fast-paced script and a well-placed sense of when to
be over-the-top (guns are called ``roscoes'') and when to be serious.
While unrepentantly violent, it also is, in a strange, underworld
way, quite humanistic.

Gibson's just-below-the-surface smarm, which typically comes
down on the side of goodness and nobility, does no such thing
here. And it serves him well. The more oily he gets, the more
honorable an anti-hero he manages to become. He's weary of the
violence he has to inflict, and just when he's about to fall from
grace completely, his inner good guy emerges.

``You're not going to kill me, are you?'' whines Stegman, a
small-time hood played with weaselly relish by David Paymer (``Mr.
Saturday Night'').

``Not in front of these kids,'' Porter replies.

The characters are worthy of a good Raymond Chandler yarn,
transplanted to Chicago. A troika of mob leaders is played with
great gusto by William Devane at his toothy best, the ever-craggy
Kris Kristofferson and, in an unbilled role, a malevolent but
perpetually exasperated James Coburn.

Gregg Henry is terrifying and pathetic as Val, the ruthless
mid-level mobster who steals from Porter to pay back the syndicate
and becomes Porter's obsession. Maria Bello (``ER'') is haunting
as an ethereal hooker whom Porter turns to for comfort and safe
haven. And Bill Duke and Jack Conley are entertainingly threatening
as two cops as well-dressed as they are corrupt.

Stealing the show, though, is Lucy Liu (the frosty Ling from
Fox's ``Ally McBeal'') as Pearl, a hotheaded Chinese gang leader/dominatrix
who's as quick with her fist as she is with her tongue. Liu is
clearly an actress on the cusp of big-time stardom.

The whole look of ``Payback,'' especially Richard Hoover's
production design, helps make the movie provocative and memorable.
The city itself is a character, and though the movie was filmed
in Chicago, the filmmakers say they were trying to create an Anytown
look - a gritty urban setting that wasn't quite Chicago, wasn't
quite New York, wasn't quite LA. They succeeded.

They used no cars made after 1989. Costume designer Ha Nguyen
outfitted the characters in leather jackets and tacky mob suits
evocative of a ``Starsky and Hutch'' episode. And ``Super 35''
film stock produces a grainier, grittier look. A score by Chris
Boardman also accentuates the cross-generational feel with music
that transcends eras. Director-screenwriter Brian Helgeland's
adaptation of Richard Stark's novel reflects his experience in
co-writing the ``L.A. Confidential'' screenplay; the same well-conceived
characterization and dialogue shines.

``Payback,'' unlike such recent Gibson action vehicles as ``Ransom,''
is a great ride - a textured tale of comedy, conniving and accursed
lives, dark and whimsical at the same time.

``Payback,'' a Paramount film, is directed by Helgeland from
a script he co-wrote with Terry Hayes. It is rated R.